


Leonard Stein

by Annamaetion



Category: DC's Legends of Tomorrow (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-18
Updated: 2019-02-18
Packaged: 2019-10-30 17:58:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,538
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17833391
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Annamaetion/pseuds/Annamaetion
Summary: How the Legend of Tomorrow recruitment would have gone with one very major change in three characters’ past? Leonard Snart, and by extension Mick Rory, got fostered by Martin and Clarissa Stein and a lot of things changed with that small decision changes plenty of things in all their lives. Here’s how it changes the founding of the Legends.





	Leonard Stein

Leonard Stein

Last thing Leonard remembered as he was coming to was driving along in a van with Mick... then some guy in a trench coat standing in the middle of the road with a gun pointed at them. Then, a flash of light.

Leonard groaned as he roused himself off of his back, first thing he made note of was that his husband Mick was groggily waking up right next to him. Also, he saw his foster father, Professor Martin Stein, to his other side.

Leonard started to sit up, Mick had been with him when they’d gotten snatched, so he probably wasn’t the person to ask.

“D-“ he started inquiring after his foster father, but remembered himself as the others on the roof shifted around them. Leonard Snart; or as he had been secretly thinking of himself for years now, Leonard Stein was nobody’s fool.

If people knew how highly he and Mick regarded Martin, that could put Martin in danger. Regardless of the fact his dad was one half of a nuclear powered super hero, Leonard still felt the need to be protective of him.

“D...Doctor Stein?” He managed to shift his pronouncement of ‘Dad’ into ‘Doctor’ just in the nick of time, hopefully nobody would notice his slip. If they did, hopefully they would just chalk it up to dazed confusion. “Where are we, how did we get here?”

“I haven’t the slightest clue, which unnerves me greatly.” Martin looked him in the eyes sadly, because of course he had cottoned on to why Leonard had called him Doctor instead of Dad.

He’d often said that a son shouldn’t feel so compelled to protect his father. That it was the fathers job to protect his children, not the other way around. 

Leonard then saw Martin’s gaze fall onto Mick, and he visibly relaxed his shoulders. Martin did always feel a bit better about Leonard’s vigilantism when he knew Mick was by his side.

Suddenly, Jefferson “Jax” Jackson, the other half of the Firestorm Matrix, spoke from where he stood next to the two hawks, “Maybe we should ask the British dude with the flashing light thing.”

They all turned there heads as their kidnapper appeared off to the side. Leonard positioned himself slightly angled to place himself between the mysterious man and his father. Mick easily followed suit, but more towards putting himself in in a better position to protect Leonard.

Mick’s hand twitching for his holster, but his fingers only found that he was missing his fire gun.

Leonard too, found himself lacking his cold gun. Mick and Leonard both grumbled, malcontented with this discovery.

-///-

‘Rip Hunter’ had delivered his spiel, which basically boiled down to; we need to save time, and kill this really bad really difficult to kill near immortal dude. However Leonard was more stuck on the ‘Legends’ aspect of Rip’s sales pitch.

“If we’re such Legends by your time, wouldn’t taking us out of our place in the timeline and risking us dying be a really bad idea?” Leonard demanded, and as Rip sputtered a bit, scrambling for an explanation, Dr. Raymond Palmer started pointing out paradoxes inherent in Rip’s plan.

“This seems sort of slap-dash,” Ray said in a deeply considered tone, “If we kill Savage before he rises to power and prevent the events that bring you to recruit us, you’ll have no motivation to travel back in time in order to recruit us!”.

Rip sputtered some excuses about how people on time ships get affected differently, but all Leonard was doing was keeping an eye on his dad, who was probably mulling over the implications. Martin seemed very concerned about something.

If Martin didn’t think Rip’s story held water then he certainly wasn’t going to listen. 

White Canary, Sara Lance, also seemed to be watching how Dr. Palmer’s increasingly pointed questions seemed to place Rip Hunter into more and more of a tight corner. Sara also glanced occasionally at Martin, who had taken out a notepad and was scribbling something down furiously, muttering to himself.

Kendra and Carter were wondering aloud as to why they couldn’t just go back to when they’d last defeated Savage and just ‘vacuum up the dust’, and ‘I don’t know, just fire it into the sun.’

Basically the group consensus basically had shifted from; Time travel to save the world? to Okay, this ‘Rip Hunter’ guy is not on the level.

Mick seemed disinterested in the proceedings, mentally checking out about when ‘Quantum Physics’ had first been mentioned, and seeming more interested in scanning the rooftop for his and Leonard’s elemental guns.

Dr. Palmer was on a roll, and nobody else on the roof seemed interested in breaking into what was turning out to be a verbal beat down on how Rip had mentioned something about how it was dangerous to change the past. 

“Isn’t that exactly what you’re attempting to do, change your past?”

Dr. Palmer demanded, looking 100% done with Rip’s ‘I’m a Time Master fixing the timeline is what I do’ shtick,

“Sure; for us it’s the future and filled with endless possibilities! However, you’ve already lived it. This is your past! How is it you mean to lecture me about the dangers of altering the timeline when that’s exactly what you’re doing!”

Martin finally seemed to reach the end of whatever he was scrawling and he handed it off to Dr. Palmer, who took it and started analyzing it intently. Somehow, Martin had written what looked like ten or twelve pages of stuff while they had all stood watching Dr. Palmer hand Rip Hunter his own ass in a time debate. 

Martin Stein stood straight and brushed grime off his coat that had been acquired from being lain on the rooftop earlier. He looked every bit the Professor, and Nuclear Physicist. 

“Who did you lose?” And that wasn’t at all what anybody on the roof expected him to ask, but now that he had everybody could see grief start to show in Hunter’s eyes. “Who did Vandal Savage kill?”

“I just told you! He kills thousands, hundreds of thousands!”

“Who. Did. You. Lose.” Martin asked cooly, “I advise you answer this time, before Dr. Palmer has another spate of questions to ask you.”

Dr. Palmer had reached the end of whatever Professor Stein had written and indeed seemed like he was again brimming with questions. Rip crumpled and sat on the rooftop, defeated. “My wife, and son... my family.”

“You lied to us about being legends,” Martin continued calmly, not even bothering to make that a question, “you picked heroes that would have the least impact on your timeline if we went missing.”

“Yes.” Rip sounded absolutely gutted, his eyes brimming with tears. “Please understand, I’ve tried so many times to save them myself. I’ve failed every time! I’m not enough to save my wife and son. I thought—“

“You thought you needed a team... but we cannot possibly be an effective team if we’re being kept in the dark as to aspects of the mission, now can we?”

Rip shook his head miserably, his tears now flowing freely down his cheeks as he sobbed. Leonard’s heart swelled with both sympathy at Rip’s plight, and with pride at how quickly Martin had gotten to the truth. 

Leonard knew his foster father was smart, he’d had heard plenty of people say it, and Martin’s mantle was covered in science awards; this was Martin quietly proving he was very emotionally intelligent as well. Having cottoned on to the fact that Rip was concealing his true motivations in a play on their greater good altruism.

Suddenly, Leonard felt Mick press his cold gun into his hands, such was his trust in his husband that he didn’t even flinch. Other than to place the gun back into his holster.

Mick had silently wandered away while everyone else was focused on Rip and Ray’s spirited debate and found their weapons. He handed Leonard a mace and indicated Hawkman with a tilt of his head.

While Mick handed Sara’s weapons off to her, Leonard got Carter’s attention with a subtle wave out of the corner of his eyes and handed off the mace when Carter turned to face him. 

Leonard kept his voice in a hushed whisper, not wanting to attract the attentions of the rest of the group, “My partner Mick found this, thought you might want it back.”

Carter nodded in appreciation and accepted his mace back with a muted bow and a mouthed ‘thank you’, before turning his attention towards Kendra.

Kendra took note of this, and took the opportunity of a lull in the discussion with her thoughts, “Vandal Savage has killed me and Carter in every one of our past lives. I would very much like to take the fight to him.”

Seeing as how Kendra was the only person who was apparently able to kill Savage, and have him actually staying dead; her opinion on the mission was actually fairly significant. If she refused to go along with it, then really the whole point was sort of moot.

Mick smirked, “I vote we capture Savage and then shoot him into the sun, see ‘im come back from that!”

Of course Mick would vote the fieriest option available to them in the whole solar system. Leonard chuckled, then he said, “I second that motion.”

Jax was smirking too, “Yeah based on what I’ve heard about him, I can’t help but agree. What about you, Grey?”

Martin sighed, “It would seem even your proposal of a mission will shift the course of history. Just having us now know that Savage still needs to be dealt with in the here and now could be enough that our future has already switched tracks.”

Leonard considered this, but then asked something he’d been mulling over. “Rip, you researched us I assume?” At Rip’s reluctant nod, Leonard continued, “What did your records have to say my last name was?”

Rip regarded him with a confused tilt to his head, “Snart... why?”.

This solidified Leonard’s resolve, “Then you have at least had a small effect on your future just by showing up.” He stepped back and addressed the group,

“Everyone; I would like to introduce you all to my foster father.”

He said, gesturing at a baffled Martin who waved in response to the shocked looks from everyone besides Mick and Jax, who already both knew.

“I’ve decided, just now, no more hiding it. I’m proud to be his kid, and I don’t need to hide that to protect him. He’s more than capable of taking care of himself. I’m changing my last name to Stein, as soon as I can.”

Mick turned to Rip, “I’m guessing you think my last name is Rory?”. Rip hesitantly nodded and Mick turned to Leonard and he received a silent nod of approval to his questioning glance.

Mick smiled, “That must make my last name Stein now too, huh boss? I don’t much like my old man’s name. And if you hadn’t hated yours just as much I would have changed my name years ago when we married.”

Kendra squealed a high-pitched, “Awwwwww, that’s so cute!”

Dr. Palmer gasped, “You guys are married?!” He started grinning from ear to ear, “That’s awesome, congrats. How long have you been husbands?”

“26 years, we got married when I was 19 and Mick was 22. Dad... Martin officiated, because he’s also a Rabbi.”

Kendra seemed in awe, “That would make you 45... I thought you were like, 30 at the oldest!”

Leonard shrugged, “I get that a lot. I think I owe that to him” Leonard indicated a suddenly demure and self-conscious Martin, “My...biological father’s smoking and drinking definitely aged him prematurely, and Martin taking me in kept me from following his lead.”

Martin squirmed a little under all the attention. Which was lifted from him as Dr. Palmer helped Rip get back onto his feet. 

“I see my brief time here has already had implications on the time stream, and not inconsequential ones either.” Rip sighed, still looking wobbly and miserable as Dr. Palmer handed him a napkin he had pulled from a compartment on his A.T.O.M suit. “Thank you Dr. Palmer... and thank you all for being so reasonable with me... despite me kidnapping and lying to you... admittedly, not the best first impression.”

Rip picked up the paper that Martin had written from the ground and glanced at it. 

Suddenly he had it gripped in both hands and was reading it intently. “You... just wrote this, just now?!”.

Martin nodded, “Well, yes? I was wanting to get my thoughts down, my mind was absolutely spinning. Because, when you’re starting from the knowledge that time travel actually exists, and not just a flimsy proof... it’s a bit more sensible spending effort to pin down the equations?”.

Martin turned to Dr. Palmer who nodded in understanding, “I get what you’re saying Professor; it’s easier to try solving something if you know that there is a solution to be reached, and not just theories.”

Martin cheered considerably, “Exactly!”

Rip seemed deeply concerned, “These formulas aren’t meant to be discovered for another 50 years, Professor Stein...”

Dr. Palmer grinned at Martin finally being rendered speechless, “Professor Stein invented a way to detect Alpha particles when they were still only a theory... I think that was probably about the age where I was still eating crayons. He’s always been one step ahead in his field.”

Jax laughed, “Now Grey’s left the field in the dust?”

“Hardly Jefferson,” Martin said shaking his head, “Like with my Alpha particle detector, I would have to get these formulae into practical applications. Right now they’re speculative theories as far as current science would consider them.”

Ray smiled, leaning in and saying in a stage-whisper, “He’s totally left the field in the dust.”

Martin shifted uncomfortably as he chuckled a bit at the complement.

“Be that as it may...” Martin took back his notebook, “We need to discuss what we’re going to do about Vandal Savage?”

Mick jokingly raised his right hand, “I’m still voting ‘find him and fire him into the sun’ who’s with me?”

Leonard was quick to join and placed his right hand on Mick’s shoulder while raising his left. “I know I’m in.”

Kendra chuckled and raised her hand. 

Carter nodded, “I agree, it’s high time to take the fight to Savage!”

Ray smiled brightly from where he was still hovering over Rip, making sure that the now chastised time traveler could see him raise his hand.

Sara raised her hands, both now with her recovered weapons held prominently on display. “Count me in too!”

Jax smiled at Martin, “What do you say Grey, wanna make it unanimous?”

“Well Jefferson...” Martin considered, “While the firing into the sun bit might be a bit extreme, there’s nothing to say Firestorm can’t aid in capturing Mr. Savage.” Martin raised his hand.

Raymond grinned over at Rip, who he was still unconsciously comforting. “See what a little honesty will get you?” 

Rip offered them all a watery smile.

Leonard turned to address the crowd, “Let’s go kill an immortal dude!”

-end-

**Author's Note:**

> Not really planning on anything further than this, but let me tell you in my version they both survive the ordeal and nobody has to sacrifice themselves to any oculus or gets killed by Nazis...


End file.
